JESC 2018: Norway rejects, Cyprus withdraws and Ireland confirms!

It’s still fairly quiet in the Junior Eurovision world despite the contest approaching, but we now know more about who we will and won’t be seeing at the contest this year. We have already seen that Bulgaria and Slovenia will not be returning to the contest, and now we know two more nations we won’t be seeing at this year’s contest.

It has been announced that Norway will not make their return to the contest. This comes as no surprise as it has been many years since we have seen the nation compete at Junior Eurovision. Their first participation was in the debut year of 2003, and they participated through to 2005, where they placed third with Malin Reitan. With Norway rejecting participation once again, it means that this year we will see no Scandinavian nations at the contest. Both Sweden and Denmark had previously participated but no longer, and Finland will not be making their debut.

Watch their latest entry here:

We will continue with the disappointing news, as it has been revealed that Cyprus will be pulling out of the contest this year. Even though we saw Cyprus’ best result at Eurovision this year, it seems that Junior Eurovision is no longer a priority for Cyprus, perhaps due to poor results in previous years. It has not been officially revealed why the nation is not participating, but they have confirmed for Eurovision 2019, so it could be the case that all efforts are being put into Eurovision.

Watch their latest entry here:

Now we can end on the good news, which is that we will be seeing Ireland at Junior Eurovision this year. Through social media, they announced that the auditions would be open soon and to stay tuned for more details. Ireland have previously used a national final (albeit pre-recorded) to select their act, but it is not yet clear as to whether the auditions will lead to a national final, or whether it will be an internal selection – but the good news is that we will be seeing Ireland there! This is the fourth consecutive year that we will be seeing Ireland at Junior Eurovision.